


Petty Cries (And Their Meanings)

by Adeline_Wrights_Fanfiction



Series: Love's Garden AU [7]
Category: RWBY
Genre: F/F, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, poet!Weiss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-18
Updated: 2019-11-18
Packaged: 2021-02-08 12:15:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21475864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Adeline_Wrights_Fanfiction/pseuds/Adeline_Wrights_Fanfiction
Summary: Ruby and Weiss spend the afternoon together with their academic work. When Weiss gets distracted writing poetry, Ruby takes the opportunity to do one of her new favorite things – to get to know her partner better through discussing the girl's writing. Today she learns quite a bit more than she expected about her partner's difficult family history.
Relationships: Ruby Rose/Weiss Schnee
Series: Love's Garden AU [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1545730
Comments: 2
Kudos: 56





	Petty Cries (And Their Meanings)

**Author's Note:**

> Formerly titled "Poetry Slam at the Schnee/Rose Coffee Table", which was frankly a terrible name and almost assuredly turned away most of my prospective readers. The summary has also been updated to provide a clearer picture of what the story entails.

Ruby and Weiss sat together on the couch in the living room, their coffee table littered with the unruly chaos of Ph.D. thesis notes and reference materials. Ruby sat curled up by Weiss’s side with a textbook on ancient Vacuan folktales while Weiss herself pored over the notes, making edits as she did every afternoon. At least, that’s what Ruby thought Weiss was doing before she felt her partner release a long, shuddering sigh.

“You okay?” Ruby asked, peering up at her partner from her perch at the girl’s side.

“I’m a little shaken, to be honest.” Weiss shifted on the couch and ran soft, trembling fingers through Ruby’s hair. “Do you have time to read something real quick?”

Ruby perked up at the opportunity to read more of Weiss’s writing. Sometimes she just read through paragraphs of engineering gibberish to help smooth out the language, but Ruby knew from Weiss’ tremulous touches that this was something different. And whenever Weiss presented Ruby with works of a more personal nature, she always made sure to give her partner the full attention that she deserved.

“What did you write about?” Ruby asked, setting her book down on the table.

“I got distracted while I was editing, as I do, and ended up writing about my father…”

“Oh,” Ruby replied. Weiss had made it very clear that she had a rather awful falling out with her family just before they had met. Even after an entire year together, Ruby knew rather little about her partner’s family. She briefly wondered if meeting Ruby’s own father had dragged some painful memories back to the surface.

“I’m here for you, Weiss. Do you want to make any edits before I look at it?”

Weiss smiled. Ruby knew how much it bothered her to show anyone unpolished writing, but she was already prepared. “I’ve actually written and rewritten this poem three times over the past half-hour.” With a half-hearted smile, “I think it’s ready for public consumption.”

And with that, Weiss handed a sheet of clean, elegant cursive to Ruby. Sitting with her back against the couch, she spared a brief glance at her partner before beginning to read:

* * *

_Where were you when I needed you most?_  
_Who was it I saw wearing your face?_  
_Treating me kindly, filling me with love?_  
_Treacherous villain, who did I unmask?_  
_How are you at once my father and a gnat?_  
_How did all at once the world become so flat?_

_I love you; I hate you;_  
_Neglect you; frustrate you._

_You never did quite seem to mind_  
_Until the ivory and wine—_  
_While, drunk on power,_  
_You were fine—_  
_My very life is built on lies._  
_Fuck you and your petty cries._

_I love you; I hate you;_  
_Reject you; abate you._

_Your crimes will not be sanctified._  
_Your guilt will not absolve your pride._  
_Your cruelty has yet victimized._  
_My sense of trust has left to die._  
_My indignation does yet rise._  
_My very life is built on lies._

_Fuck you and your petty cries._

* * *

“Wow,” Ruby breathed, soaking it all in. She set the paper in her lap for a minute as Weiss watched her carefully. When she was ready, Ruby picked the paper up and read it a second time, then a third, then a fourth.

Satisfied that she had absorbed the content as best she could, Ruby asked, “Do you want me to go first, or should you?”

“You can go first if you want, but I know I’ve left you in the dark for a long time about family matters.”

Ruby set the paper carefully atop her book for easy access. “Talk to me, Weiss. Anything you’re willing to tell me. If you’re ready to share, I’m ready to listen.”

And so Weiss dove into her tale, starting from early childhood where she tragically lost her mother to alcoholism, continuing all the way up to the months before they’d met where Weiss was disowned by her family for publicly accusing her father of being a liar and a thief. Weiss listed a long set of grievances against the man, the least of which being his draconian abuses of cheap overseas labor and Atlesian tax law.

Ruby listened with rapt attention as Weiss spoke, offering brief interjections now and again, asking questions to show she was engaged but also simply to fill in the gaps. This was Weiss’s life story unfolding before her! She knew she couldn’t learn it all in a day, but who knew when Weiss would next be so eager to talk about it?

When Weiss had finally quieted, eyes downcast in somber contemplation, Ruby returned to the poem her partner had written.

“I thought the poem was dense even before I knew any of this. Wow, Weiss. This is brilliant!”

The older girl flushed at the compliment but otherwise held her peace.

“I mean, it’s definitely not a happy poem, but there’s so much layered in here! Let me see if I can pick this apart.”

Weiss looked her partner in the eye and nodded, grateful for the support.

“You’ve always had a sort of love/hate relationship with your father - that much you’re pretty explicit about. But he wasn’t always horrible to you? Apart from the things that… umm… that might be causing your nightmares, which we’re not sure actually happened, you can’t seem to recall anything from your childhood that made him out to be such a bad guy.”

Weiss nodded, eyes pleading for Ruby to continue.

“As time went on, he became more and more distant. And as you grew older and more independent, more defiant, he kinda just snapped? Like, I’m not sure I totally get it, but it sounds like one day the lights clicked on and you just realized that there was this whole other side to him he’d been hiding from you your whole life.”

“That’s exactly it,” Weiss said. “The more I learned about the way he ran his business – the more I learned just how bloody our family’s fortune was – the more openly hostile he turned towards me and my criticisms. The first day he struck me was the day I ran away from home.”

“He hit you?!” Ruby yelled, far louder than she’d intended.

“He did,” Weiss admitted. “And as painful of a memory as it was I’m glad he did. If he didn’t make such a blatant display of abuse, it may have taken me years later still before I realized the extent of his cruelty.”

Ruby’s brow was deeply knitted in consternation. She was determined to listen for as long as Weiss was willing to speak, but she was starting to think that maybe she needed a hug.

“On the very first day of my independence, I divorced all of my investments and financial holdings from the Schnee name and set up private accounts. It was over the next several months of Jacques – my father’s name, which through all this discussion I have somehow neglected to mention – of Jacques pleading for me to return did I realize that he had been skimming off the top and stealing from trust funds that were meant to see my siblings and me through our schooling and early adulthood.

“I was the heiress to the Schnee family fortune until I told Jacques in a handwritten letter that he could go fuck himself.”

At that final, pointed admission and the smarmy grin on her partner’s face, Ruby threw her head back in laughter and practically threw herself into Weiss's arms for a tight hug.

“I’m so proud of you, Weiss. For enduring all the hardships of your youth; for getting away from that awful situation; for somehow being the wonderful, loving, honest person that you are despite your awful upbringing. I love you so much.”

Weiss buried her face in the crook of Ruby’s neck as tears began to form. “I may have gotten away, Ruby, and my elder sister Winter, but I have a little brother who’s still stuck in that horrible situation. Whitley is turning out to be just as shitty as Father and it’s only because staying in Father’s good graces is how he’s learned to cope. I fear for his happiness and his future.”

Ruby sniffled and cradled Weiss’s head against her neck. “Does Whitley even understand what’s going on?”

“I wish I knew,” Weiss said. “My best guess is that Jacques has been feeding him lies, telling him Dust knows what to pit him against me and Winter in the event we ever come into contact again.

“That’s horrible,” Ruby breathed.

“It is, but that’s how things are. In the meantime, I’m not really sure what can be done.”

“I…” Ruby pondered for a long moment. “I’m not sure there is anything that can be done. Not unless you can prove to social services that he’s an unfit parent.”

Weiss scoffed. “With his abstract amounts of wealth, there’s no way social services could lay a finger on him.”

Ruby frowned at the thought that with enough money, anyone could be bought. Did there exist a price high enough to sway even her?

The two held each other while they tried to settle their racing thoughts. In time, their breathing synchronized, heartbeats slow.

“How are you holding up?” Ruby asked.

“Much better after talking things through. I’m glad that I finally summoned the courage to share all this with you.” Weiss was silent for several seconds before asking, “And you? How are you holding up?”

Ruby squeezed her partner in a show of thanks. “The hug really, really helped. This was some heavy stuff.”

Weiss squeezed Ruby back, arms wrapped protectively around her lower back. “Don’t ever let me overwhelm you, okay? If it’s ever too much, please let me know. My writing can be… difficult.”

“It can be,” Ruby admitted, “But it’s so quintessentially you. I’ll stomach any amount of hardship to be that much closer to you.”

Weiss laughed and kissed Ruby on her forehead. “Well, I hope I don’t cause you too much hardship over my poetry. And thank you, Ruby. For listening.”

Ruby smiled at her partner, silver eyes shining with love that only seemed to brighten day by day.

“Always.”


End file.
